Commercialization in west of ireland agriculture in the 1890s

Abstract

Abstract: The "sale of farm products ratio" indicator is used in this paper to establish the extent to which the agricultural economy of the West of Ireland and, in particular, the economy of the smaller landholders was commercial or subsistence oriented in the final decade of the nineteenth century. Using two separate methodologies, estimates of commercialisation ratios are provided for farms in selected Poor Law Unions in the West of Ireland. The results from the use of both methodologies show that farms in the West of Ireland, even the smaller farms of approximately JE4 valuation, were by this period highly commercialised, with livestock to the fore in commodity production.